I have an idea for helicopter parents. Maybe, if you got serious about forcing the government to raise the minimum wage and dramatically lower the cost of college education, your kids wouldn’t be so goddamned depressed and fearful of adulthood. When I was 19 years old, I had already saved enough money as a bus boy to move to California, get an apartment, and enroll in community college. After I proved myself, my parents helped me out considerably, but I eventually graduated from a four-year college with zero debt and plenty of job prospects. If my parents hadn’t helped me out, the process would have taken longer and I might have had to borrow some money, but I would not have been saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of debt.
Today, the same community college that, in 1989, was charging California residents $5 per credit hour (and non-residents $105 per credit hour) is charging residents $46 per credit hour (and non-residents $315 per credit hour, plus a $46 State Enrollment Fee, plus $239 for Non-Resident Tuition, plus a $30 Capital Outlay Fee).
In 1989, I could do 15 credit hours in a semester for a cost of $1,575 plus books. Today, it would cost me $5,040. That’s almost $7,000 a year more, assuming you don’t take summer courses, which I did.
But what’s the difference in the minimum wage or the wage for food service employees who receive tips?
In 1989, the minimum wage was $3.35 (or $4.24 in 1996 constant dollars) and now it is $7.75 (or $4.87 in 1996 constant dollars). The tipped-employee minimum wage has remained unchanged at $2.13 since it was last bumped up in 1991. For a California resident, the cost of a credit hour is more than nine times what it was, but their minimum wage job pays less than double and amounts to almost the same worth in constant dollars.
We can talk about a sluggish economy or bad parenting habits, but the key problem for kids these days it that low-pay jobs don’t give them the ability to afford to live on their own and college is just way, way, way too expensive. Kids literally cannot become independent of their parents unless they are willing and able to borrow enormous sums of money, which they must then turn around and pay interest on for the next two decades.
The kids don’t have the political sophistication (yet) or the financial pull to do anything about this, but the parents could if they wised up about what’s going down in this country after forty years of conservative politics.
No, the Democrats aren’t coming to the table with perfect solutions, but that’s because the party that forced this mess on America still has too much power to obstruct. And it’s because the Democrats aren’t seeing the votes and the support from the very people who should be pushing them to help. That’s the kids and their parents.
Excellent. Up to the excuses for the Democrats. Elected officials do have some responsibility for the nature of the political dialog that goes on in their districts and states. And the party establishment in counties and states does have some communications responsibilities (or in some states just letting folks know they are still there).
But the issue of costs and wages is critical. In 1982 Ronald Reagan eliminated the Community Action Agency job that I was working on, writing federal grant applications, conducting performance analyses, ensuring the “maximum feasible participation of the poor”. It was also still the doldrums of the economy. I was married with one child. My wife was able to get work and free daycare, and I decided to get community college training in IT. The tuition for a full load for a quarter was $55, and books were at the usual inflated cost of $200 or so per quarter. My wife worked as an activities aide in nursing home and I got what pick-up jobs around classes that I could. We moved from a house that rented for $200 a month to one that rented for $60 a month and was slated for demolition by the power company for a substation. There were some windows I had to seal before the winter in the mountains of NC came.
We made it through. But with all of the skills we used then, we likely could not make it through today assuming our same educational, age, and family situation. The state and federal governments have put more tuition on the backs of community college students. (In some counties in the 1960s, tuition at the local community college for residents was $0.) And minimum wage jobs both pay lower and are harder for folks with degrees to get. (“Overqualified” you know.) The kids who finished with their degrees in hand in 2008-2012 are the ones in the worst shape. The lucky ones got jobs as baristas or wait staff or fast food jobs. The high school kids from 2009 on are mostly totally demoralized. It is impossible for them to pick a major with the job market in such turmoil.
I know a lot of very worried parents who have not been helicopter parents at all. And they have kids living at home two and three years out of high school or college who are almost lost as to what to do–smart kids who have worked hard to get through school.
If there is one case where the personal is very political, this is it. Less moralizing and more putting in office folks who will actually fix the issue.
When I look back at my situation and how it played out, I can see how much things have changed for young people. And it’s not for the better.
I got my first job at 16. I made $2.30 per hour, the minimum wage at that time. During the summer, I could get as many as 30-32 hours in. Most times it was 22-25 hours. During school, because of my grade point average, I qualified for early dismissal and was able to work 20 hours per week all during the school year. I worked this job and saved money until I graduated from high school in 1977. In the fall of 1977 I started college at a local satellite campus of a major college here in Ohio. Tuition for full time enrollment at this satellite campus was $480. I continued to work at my job about 20 hours a week while going to school full time. With what I had saved and continued to earn from my minimum wage job, I was able to buy a car, pay for all of my tuition, pay for gas to go back and forth to work and school and also to buy all my books for class. My parents paid for my car insurance. That was the only thing they had to pitch in for during all this time. I went to school continuously for two years and earned an Associate Degree. At that point I was still working my little job, and was up to $3.50 per hour. This was $.60/hr over the minimum wage amount at the time. With the Associate Degree, I was able to get a full time job, with benefits. These benefits included tuition reimbursement, which allowed me to go back to school and get my Bachelors Degree a few years later.
Somehow, I don’t see this kind of story as being even remotely realistic for a 16 year old kid today.
It’s not what’s the matter with Kansas on economic issues, it’s what’s the matter with white males in America
http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedpolitics/what-the-2012-election-would-have-looked-like-with
You can’t lead people where they don’t want to go. The people/households with the money in America, not just the 1%, are predominately white male led and on fiscal issues they remain generally conservative. Although, given what the country did for the WWII generation (GI Bill) and the boomers (NDSL, subsidized student loans) I would say they are reactionary at this point.
True, Democrats could be learning to lose on these issues in a way to advance the education of the electorate so that they might be able to win later. But politicians of both parties are almost uniformly cowards along these lines. Republicans seem stronger because their base is crazier, but they are following the same rule, pander to your donors and primary base.
The Democrat base sucks on these issues – ask the unions.
About one of those “white male head of household” Republicans (and newly retired). One of his former co-workers (and considered a friend) recently stopped by his house to show off his brand new three-wheeler (trikes for geezers). This man (that not once in his life had ever desired a motorcycle) suddenly had to have one too. But a three wheeler is apparently not a stand-alone purchase. It required a truck outfitted with trailer to haul the bike to places where he can more safely ride it. His latest toy cost in excess of $60,000.
That’s a very racist and sexist statement.
http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-median-income-in-the-us-by-race-2013-9
White is above the US average.
Asian is above the white average, but there are roughly 20X as many white as Asian households.
Hence, white households predominate (are the strongest element) in household income.
15% of households are headed by women where the household income is above average, 85% of these households have men as primary source of income.
Men in white households voted for Romney to a such a degree that Romney would have won in a landslide with their vote, if they had the only votes.
It’s pretty fair to conclude that the white men are the main obstacle to any fiscal, tax, or equitable economic growth policies because of their economic power and their political preferences.
That’s neither sexist nor racist. It facts-ist.
Yoiu attributed attitudes to an entire race and sex. That’s racist and sexist, you racist sexist asshole.
He did no such thing:
Two choices for fixing this country.
I’m always down for option 1, but I have no problems at all, whatsoever, with option 2.
Option 1 doesn’t require Democrats to turn off the “moderates”, although option 2, by default, will do so.
I’m not sure which one is the better choice, but you aren’t going to convince stupid that they need to wise up. Stupid is as stupid does, and at present, Stupid is a proud Republican voter.
A huge difference between the late sixties and today is that there were blue collar jobs available for those that didn’t much care for the academic part of school — and were able in high school to obtain some work related skills in shop and business classes — but also understood that that high school diploma had value. Now they are told that they have to go to college to get a job and that may be demotivating while they’re still in high school.
It wasn’t that easy back then for those of us that had to pay their own way through college. A part-time minimum wage job didn’t cover the basics unless one lived at home.
I guess it must depend on where you went to school. I went to a state university (Univ. of Va. in Charlottesville) and paid my own way. Mostly I waitressed, although one year I worked at a photo finishing lab. I graduated with $2,000 in school loans to pay off. The last couple years I rented off-campus housing with other students, paying $33 per month one year and $27.50 per month the next year. Those days you could do that are looooooonnnggg gone.
Klutz’ like me envied those that could waitress. Rent in CA everywhere I’ve live has always been high. A part-time minimum wage job with roommates was doable if one ate a lot of brown rice and vegetables and not much else. My health suffered after a year of that.
You’re right. I lived at home. And I used my Mom’s car and gas to commute. Worked summers at Motorola building televisions (Gee! They weren’t made in Asia!) and after school in the Research Institute Biology Lab and also grading Math papers.
If I wasn’t on my phone I’d have more to say. All I can say for now is that I paid my own way with $49,500 in loans taken out, went to a low cost (relatively speaking) state-school (VA Tech, yes I was a freshmen during the massacre), and I worked every summer. I saw no reason to work during school for 10-20 hours for minimum wage when it could degrade my grades and social life for no money in the grand scheme of things.
I lived with my parents for a year and a half out of school to save money to pay for my loans. My dad wasn’t supportive. Constantly degraded me, called me a leach, and always yelled at me “get a fucking job”. I was a substitute teacher at the time. Applied for over 1,000 jobs easy. Got maybe ten interviews, three offers. Finally took one with the federal government. Anyway I’m now out of my parent’s house and paid off all of my loans just this week. $61,000 total when you include the interest. It took me two years
Despite all this, I am lucky as fuck, and I know it. And I’ve got enough saved up for my sister so she doesn’t have to go through this same shit. The fact that I consider myself lucky, which is indeed lucky in this time, is sad as hell. I hope my peers get some sort of jubilee for their loans.
Oh I forgot to say that I saved enough working in high school (and graduation presents) to be able to pay cash for my first year. Tho my program was five years (supposed to be four but I had to take a class over to take the next years of classes; they offer waivers but so many kids (40%) need to take it over that they don’t give them for this class).
College is prohibitively expensive, but it’s pretty unfair to pick on California community colleges, especially without accounting for inflation.
Your number from 1989 is actually $2900 in today’s dollars. I agree it should be lowered, but it’s not $7000 more in real dollars. That’s about $2200 more.
The real crime here is in the 4 year colleges, and many states are worse offenders than CA. I counsel low income students on college admission here in Minnesota, which is one ofthe least affordable state there is (we have the highest student debt load of all states), and the cost of U of Minnesota is obscene. There is no way a middle class family can afford what they are charging ($25k for room, board and tuition all told for a year there if you are just above the pell grant line, and that is after all scholarships, etc are applied for an average student). That’s 100k for 4 years. What middle class family can afford that? What kid who doesn’t go into high finance right out of school can pay that back?
Yeah that’s about $6,000 above VA Tech which is currently at $19,000. Which is funny bc when I started there in fall of 2006, it was around $14,000.
Make that $12,000 if you lived in the crap dorms. Now with the newer dorms it’s cheaper to live off campus. How can there be a justification for a ~50% increase in just 7 years?
Presumably it’s because the state has continued to de-fund the institution. That’s what’s been happening here in WI. Costs for everything keep going up and state funding keeps going down. The easy cuts all happened years ago, and it’s either pass more costs to the students or start shuttering departments which is effectively cuts to the students because they lose all those opportunities. Between cost of living increases, no raises, and more of health benefits being shoved off onto the staff, most people working at the university are making significantly less than they did five years ago. Fuck you, Scott Walker.
The annual cost of CA State Universities for fees, books, and room and board now ranges from $20,00 to $25,000. The average annual cost for UC is $$32,400. Berkeley would be more.
Appears that MN is either in line with CA or if the figure you cited was for schools comparable to UC, then it’s cheaper.
The biggest driver of higher college costs is the slow elimination of funding from state and local governments and moving those costs onto students.
absolutely. Youstabee that states felt that they there was a PUBLIC benefit to having an educated public, and that a major job of state colleges was to make that education available to resident HS students at an affordable price.
In the language of healt-care reform, it was a “public option”, and the competition kept private tuition under control.
No longer; GOPers (and complacent DLC Dems) convinced themselves that higher ed should be treated like an individual good, so tuition could go up as long as the individual lifetime ROI was positive.
When talking to a young man behind the counter at the nearby 7/11 I go to get the morning paper, I bemoaned the difficulty he must be having trying to go to school while working a minimum wage job. What he said next still has me scratching my head. “Well, if the minimum wage went up everything would cost more anyway.” I wonder where he gets his news from?? Any guesses??